Overnight Double-the-Cinnamon Rolls

Thank you all for your great simple food ideas! I have already started enjoying some. Feel free to add in your favorites if you haven’t already.

So, last week my husband bought a small tray of cinnamon buns from the grocery store … that I couldn’t eat. No, he wasn’t being mean. In fact, since I was sick and I usually prepare him some breakfast in the morning (otherwise he will forget and get grumpy), he was being thoughtful (thoughtful I said, not healthy) by getting an easy breakfast treat for himself. But darn it, those looked good. I wanted some … but they were riddled with dairy [if you are new, quick update: I was born with a milk allergy that I did not outgrow, and thus live dairy-free – in fact, I wrote the book on it].

Well, my cold finally showed signs of letting up yesterday. Though still a bit sniffly and with the occasional coughing fit, the spring in my step returned, the dizziness subsided, and my taste buds came roaring back … and they were still craving those darn cinnamon buns.

So, what do you do on a Friday night? Well, I bake cinnamon buns … half way. You see, all of those recipes that require you to make cinnamon buns from scratch in the morning seem ridiculous. I am hungry in the morning! I don’t want to wait for dough prep and two whole rising times before I can sink my teeth into those babies. No, a little forethought is in order.

As luck would have it, I was out of eggs. So these cinnamon rolls are vegan (dairy-free, egg-free), but don’t let that fool you, they are incredibly tender and delicious. You won’t know the difference between these and those fluffy store-bought cinnamon rolls. In fact, my husband swore that these were much better. As verified by the quantity he ate before I could even take a picture …

Plus, I suppose these could even be called “pantry cinnamon rolls” for their use of basic everyday ingredients that require no refrigeration … how cool is that?! Did I mention I found another way to use up overripe bananas?

In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast and the warm milk alternative, and let it rest for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, and salt, and set aside. Returning to the yeast, mix in the banana, melted oil or margarine (I used coconut oil), and sugar. Add half of the flour mixture to your mixing bowl and stir to combine. Slowly mix in the rest of the flour until a nice dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead it for 10 minutes or so, adding more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed to keep it from sticking to your hands. You should end up with a fairly soft dough that is just slightly sticky. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover and allow it to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes, or until it has doubled in size. Tip: I actually mix the dough by hand in a round pyrex baking dish with a glass lid. When done making the dough, the bowl is still lightly floured/greased (I cheat and even knead the dough in the bowl), and I just pop the lid on and set it aside to rise.

Punch the dough down; cover and let rest for 5 minutes. While that is resting, combine the filling ingredients. If using chilled margarine, you should end up with coarse crumbles. If you are like me and use softened margarine, you will get big soft globs of sugar. Oil or shortening should work okay, but I do like margarine for the filling.

Roll the dough into a 12 x 10-inch rectangle on a floured surface. Sprinkle with brown sugar mixture (it won’t fully cover, just evenly spread it out in small pieces as much as possible). Roll up the rectangle tightly, from the long side, pinch the seam to seal, dabbing it with a bit of water if needed. Cut the roll into 12 even slices. Place the slices in a greased 9-inch square or round baking pan**, cut sides down. Give them a little bit of space, as they will rise. Cover with plastic wrap, and pop them in the fridge to rise overnight.

In the morning, pull the cinnamon rolls from the fridge and place them on top of the stove while you preheat the oven to 375ºF. Bake them for 20-25 minutes, or until they are a light golden brown (I like them on the less browned side).

Let those piping hot cinnamon buns cool while you whisk together the glaze. Really all you need to do is whisk the powdered sugar with the vanilla extract and start with just a tablespoon of hot water, adding more only as needed. I also added some pure maple syrup, which I thought mellowed out the powdered sugar and added nice flavor, and I also added about a teaspoon or so of coconut oil to help round it out. Do what you like best, taste-testing as you go of course!

Serve up the cinnamon buns and drizzle with as much glaze as you like, or for less of a sugar rush, enjoy them as is.

Yields 12 cinnamony buns

Notes / Options:

* No Banana? – Like the recipe from Don’t Eat of the Sidewalk, you can use pumpkin puree or sweet potato puree in equal amounts to substitute for the banana. Heck, you may even be able to use applesauce … or some dairy-free yogurt!

** Pan Size – I actually didn’t have any 9 x 9 pans, so I used an 8-inch cake pan, fit nine cinnamon rolls in it (giving them each a wee bit of room to expand) and popped the other three, cut sides down in three muffin tins. The ones in the muffin tins cooked up just a few minutes faster. Feel free to wedge these babies into whatever size pans you have available. Give them just a bit of room, but not too much; you want them to rise, but also to be smooshed together once they rise and bake for that tender, pull-apart affect.

Surprisingly, even with two bananas smashed inside, not a hint of banana flavor … which is why I decided not to call them banana cinnamon buns. But, the bananas do offer a pleasant sweetness to the dough. Most sweet doughs use quite a bit more sugar, but this one doesn’t need it.

I haven’t yet ventured into the art of making cinnamon rolls. I have wanted to, desperately, but the whole spending all day minding them thing wasn’t a goer for me. These however are just perfect! Yum!

These look so good! I have considered using over ripe bananas for cinnamon rolls before, but I think I would get busted for it. Can you taste the banana in them? I want to try pumpkin too, but again, I fear I would be the only one eating them!

Wow, they look gorgeous! Sure, you don’t want to go gluten free, too, so you can be “testing” recipes for me? 😉 This recipe probably should be fairly easy to convert to gluten free though and I do have some “baking” bananas on the counter right now. 🙂

Oh, forgot to say … awesome that you wrote a book on going dairy free. I just looked at it on Amazon. Such terrific reviews! Writing a book has to be such hard work so getting such feedback must be incredibly rewarding. 🙂

I just tried these and they’re great! I got 16 rolls. Unfortunately I tried to squeeze them into a smaller pan than they needed, so some didn’t rise as well. They’re still delicious though, especially with my substitution of leftover penuche frosting thinned out with milk (or non-dairy milk) as glaze. Thanks!

Hi!
Just thought I’d tell you that apple sauce works brilliantly as a substitute for the banana and gives an excellent sweetness to the dough.
Thankyou so much for the recipe, I only discovered it last week and my third batch is proving now 🙂

I popped these in the oven this morning and they turned out wonderfully fluffy and soft! I used apple sauce instead of the banana and rice milk (son also has a nut allergy). My technique was not as pretty as yours so I guess I’ll just have to make these over and over again until I get it right! Thanks for sharing.

(My name is also Alisa, what a thing). I’m in the middle of making this recipe. The rolls are rising in the pans presently. Just wanted to say that this must be the best dough recipe I’ve followed, to date. The portions were right on the mark. I didn’t have a wet dough that needed desperate additions of flour.
I never even thought I could make something like this, but they’re looking awesome so far! Just the glaze to do a little later.